The Niche Disappears

Interesting pic. Connected Learning allows individuals to have a wider audience to access information on a variety of topics. Though some things might be niche, Connected Learning creates an opportunity for the idea of something only being niche to disappear. Everything can now have an audience. Social media helps to unify these groups from experts to the novice to anyone in between. The end goal is to create a virtual community where all can thrive. A downside: someone can create the illusion of expertise. But we know this happens in classrooms all the time. We have had those teachers where we call their understanding into question. But we must continue to progress towards an environment where one can experience multiple perspectives with a shared purpose.

SNICK: Google Form

Bubbles Are Better

To begin, if anyone has even the slightest interest in education, then take fifteen minutes out of your day to give this a watch. Personally, I couldn't agree more with what Will Richardson has to say. His evaluation of the current education field, as well as, the direction it needs to go in order to return to a positive place is truthfully accurate. He pulls no punches saying it is "not an amazing time for education." With that said, what can teachers do to help rejuvenate a positive attitude in the education field.

He starts by discussing how teachers and parents alike have a "moral imperative" to help guide children to things they might be interested in, but are not allowed to explore, because of curriculum restraints. Unfortunately, students are forced to "wait on a curriculum" to learn things that they will quickly forget once an assessment (most often a test) comes along. To sum up the system: memorize, test, forget, repeat. Certainly there are exceptions, but this is how the system has come to be. Maybe this worked for twenty or thirty years, but not anymore. Then why does education system continue to push this format of learning? Government officials are concerned about education. They want to make it so we do not fall behind with our global peers. So what to do? Make education better. Oh right!

Sadly, a better education is code word for one thing: better test scores. Therefore, we have created "one size fits all assessments" that will give the illusion that if students do well, then our education is getting better. And obviously, we must have better teachers. How do we gage what teachers are better? The teachers whose students have the better test scores. Oh, and in case I haven't said this word enough in this paragraph...better! The government has one imperative, “…to raise the needle on the test scores.” Teachers become products of the system, and the thought of wearing an earpiece with someone instructing me on how to instruct is straight out of the theater of the absurd. A system where we only care about better test scores is slowly but surely killing imagination and creativity.

And perhaps Richardson's most prevalent point to take away: "Test prep and learning are two completely different things." If the only goal of a teacher is to prepare a student for a test with knowledge they will forget within days, then I do not want to teach. But why do people gravitate towards a test? There is probably a lot more to this question than a simple sentence. However, if I had to give my two cents it is because it is an easy way to gage where a student stands. Yet, we must realize better is not always as easy as a bubble sheet.

A Skeptic's Guide to Technology in the Classroom

Skeptics of technology firmly believe that advancements in the classroom will force students to develop the attitude: "Learn what you need when you need it." However, if an individual is so naive to think that taking a pencil and paper test where you list the presidents, doesn't support the "learn what you need when you need it" attitude, then your thinking must be as extinct as the Beta VCR. No offense to those of you with a Beta VCR, I have one myself. Unfortunately, a majority of students have already adopted this model, but we must realize it is not an attitude brought on by technology, but all education. Most asked question in a whiny tone, "Why do I need to learn this?"

Though this quote is not expressed until the final paragraph in chapter three, everything subtly hints at this attitude. The main argument of the skeptics is that technology does not help develop a basic foundation of learning strategies, but limits a student's knowledge to coming "just-in-time." Despite this argument being made ad nauseam, the section I found most compelling was Assessment.

"In the traditional view, learning consists largely of memorizing essential facts and concepts, and performing procedures until they are automatic...[o]nly a small minority of educators hold the belief that education should be about students constructing their own understanding using computer tools." If this is the alternative to technology, and technology is wrong, then I don't want to be right!

The skeptics fail to recognize that technology gives students the ability to transcend memorizing. It can help students "carry out in-depth research and complete meaningful projects." Much like teachers teach what they were taught, most educators educate in the same way they were educated. If pencil and papers were what the educators had, then it is what their students will have. These skeptics seem to be wearing nostalgic lenses, and feel the way they learned was best. I am sure they would be skeptical to see me typing this. Additionally, they should be skeptical if I was using a pencil and paper. Perhaps I should return to my cave and resort to painting...

TEDx Timberlane

A Sentence That Sticks
"Tools drive science. Not theory; not experiment; it's the tools."

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This really all comes down to Marxism. That might be the most pretentious thing I have ever typed. I would say blogged, but I have never blogged. Until now.

I suppose the place to start, however, is the purpose of education. I don't want to suggest it is to make it so your student can earn a high paying job in the Wall Street District, but that's all I got, so I will go with it. For me, education (not schooling) is a mix of high level critical thinking, individual creativity and the ability to reach a state of compassion. Sure the MCAS doesn't gage compassion, but it understandable since there are so many other questions to get to: what is Na on the periodic table? What is the capital of Iowa?

If technology can expressly provide us with these very answers, it demonstrates schooling and edcuation are two very different. As Mark Twain once said:

   

Though teachers may be "dangerously irrelevant" in terms of schooling, there is still a major purpose for them in the educational realm. A teacher's ability to facilitate high level critical thinking, individual creativity and the ability to achieve a state of compassion is something that technology will have trouble touching.